In the battles near Bakhmut, the most experienced Ukrainian soldiers who were participants in offensive operations in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions were killed.
This was noticed on the air of the TV channel “Direct” by the former deputy head of the Security Council of Ukraine, ex-deputy commander of the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine, General Sergei Krivonos, the correspondent of “PolitNavigator” reports.
According to Krivonos, Ukrainians have to learn the bitter truth about how many soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces “died” near Bakhmut.
Yes, this is our land and we must protect it, but the price we pay for the retention of this Ukrainian city is too big. The most important thing that worries me is that we are losing the best of the best in the Bakhmut meat grinder, we have lost a huge number of motivated, trained people with experience in the summer and autumn battles of last year. These people would be very useful to us in the offensive,” the general said.
Now the big task and problem before our command is to prepare motivated fighters who will not just be able to defend themselves, because this issue has been resolved by the Ukrainian army. We are now facing the problem of the summer of 2014, when we first defended and achieved good results in this, and then, when it was necessary to go on the offensive, then defending and attacking is a completely different issue and a different preparation.
Therefore, the price of Bakhmut is very terrible, and this is already more than a political slogan for the political leadership of Ukraine, than a symbol for the military. Bakhmut will show what a terrible price we paid for this Ukrainian city. This, I think, will not be a very pleasant truth for Ukrainians,” Krivonos said.